We’ve all gone out of our way to look for them, we’ve all anxiously waited for some stars to give birth, we’ve all combed the internet for the names of certain stars’ kidlets.

And now, without further ado, we have… [insert drumroll here]… the Starbaby Awards! (2009 edition)

Add your favorites to the following categories:

Best

Lovely Regular

Weirdest

Twin Names! The Showdown

My Choices:

BEST: In my opinion, these 7 names represent the cream of the baby-naming crop.

1. Seraphina Rose Elizabeth – Sure, it’s a little over the top. Some even said that Ben and Jen should’ve dropped the Seraphina to fit with Sera’s sister, Violet Anne. But it’s hard to deny that these three names don’t make one glorious full name that any princess-loving girl and any whimsical adult would cherish.

2. Eloise – born to Tiany Kiriloff and Didier Engels, Belgian talk show host and DJ, this lovely European name is both literary (the “Eloise” books by Kay Thompson) and has the pristine choices of Lulu and Elo.

3. Asher Liam – the son of news reporter Campbell Brown, this name is great in that it is both masculine and soft, and timeless as well.

4. Helena Grace – this name is ethereal in its beauty and uniqueness. The daughter of Kelly Rutherford and her German ex-husband, Helena is a sister to Hermes- what a great sibset!

5. Paloma Louise- the first name meaning “dove,” this romantic name is both unusual and accessable. The mom of Paloma is actress Ana Ortiz.

6. Holden Paul Terry Backus – the son of Mira Sorvino, this handsome boy’s name is a case of a modern name with heft and intelligence.

7. Jackson James- this baby is Carson Daly’s son, and his name has a dignified simplicity, yet it would stand out in the crowd.

8. Clementine Grace – this name oozes sophistication and glamour, while being just plain beautiful as well! Her mom is Aussie actress Rachel Griffiths, whose other children are Adelaide Rose and Banjo Patrick.

LOVELY REGULAR – Not all baby-names are cutting edge, some are just normal and sweet.

2. Elizabeth – this name is one of the prettiest and most enduring name classics of all time, with a pleathora of nicknames and a whole lot of class and sophistication. Tim Allen gave his daughter this name.

3. Adam Brooks – two men’s classics [+ one a little more known than the other] = one superb name choice.

4. Sarah Brianna- cute, feminine combo from KISS member Paul Stanley. Sarah is a great timeless choice, while Brianna is somewhat of a new classic.

1. Blakesley Grace- I’m actually a fan of this name, but nevertheless, it’s an odd one… Ryan & Trista Sutter are her parents.

2. Petal Blossom Rainbow- born to Jamie & Jools Oliver, this name was a bit of a disappointment, considering her sister’s lovely names are Daisy and Poppy. At least they kept up the floral theme…

3. Kaydnz Kodah- T-Pain’s son; how do you pronounce this name?!

4. Ikhyd Edgar Arular – Cool cat M.I.A.’s son… while I like Edgar, the whole rhyming-with-wicked thing for Ikhyd is a bit of a turn-off…

5. Ciel Taylor – Niki Taylor’s daughter; while I like Ciel on paper, as a nickname for Cecilia or Celia, it sounds wayy to much like a certain whiskered mammal.

5. Mars Merkaba – Erykah Badu’s daughter. Coming from someone whose other kids are Puma and Seven, this was sort of expected…

6. Dreavyn Kingslee – son of Good Charlotte guitarist Billy Martin, this name alternately baffles and angers me. Why inflict this on a baby?

7. Nakoa-Wolf Manakauapo Namakaeha – Lisa Bonet and Jason Momoa’s son. I have no further comment.

TWIN NAMES! THE SHOWDOWN – there have been so many celebrity twin births, and this list will give both names and I will decide which I prefer.

1. Adele Georgiana and Roman Stylianos- Molly Ringwald’s new babes. These honor her husband’s Greek heritage, and they’re distinctive without being weird or unattractive. WINNER: TIE. Adele and Roman, coupled with their middle names, are both just too perfect to choose one over the other.

2. Bob and Max – Charlie Sheen’s twins. Not very impressive, but they are undeniably solid and somewhat new-classicy names. WINNER: TIE. Both are nick-namey, short names that have sort of a cool hue used together. However, they won’t sound great with Sam, Sheen’s older daughter. She’ll sound like their triplet!

3. John and Gus- actress Julie Bowen’s boys. Very simple, masculine choices. WINNER: John. Gus is great too, but is just a nickname while John is the classic, premier boy’s name. If Bowen had gone with Angus or Augustus/August with John, it would’ve been the winner.

4. Marion Loretta Elwell and Tabitha Hodge – Truth be told, I was disappointed in Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick when I heard their name choices. I expected glamorous names on par with the great name of their son, James Wilkie! However, these sound a bit middle aged. And why didn’t Tabitha get a second feminine middle name like her twin? WINNER: Marion. Though I prefer the Marian spelling, this name is romantic and classic. Plus, she has the three best names out of the five. Poor Tabitha, with her two names, got the short end of the stick.

5. Olivia Lou and Lucas Claude – Wanda Syke’s son and daughter both have very dignified and plain nice names. WINNER: Lucas Claude. While pretty Olivia is overused (sadly), Lucas is familiar but not too popular. And Claude is just cool.

I’m so sorry it’s been a month since I have updated! But now I am back, with commentary on the highly polarizing news story of the California Octuplets.

More accurately, the babies are the Suleman octuplets, born to 33-year-old divorcee Nadya Suleman. Added to her six previous kids, Ms. Suleman now has 14 kids 7 and under.

And… the names!:

Noah – male,

Maliah – female

Isaiah – male

Nariah – female

Makai – male

Josiah – male

Jeremiah – male

Jonah – male

And we can’t forget the other 6!

7-year-old Elijah Makai

6-year-old Amerah Yasmeen

5-year-old Joshua Jacob

3-year-old Aiden

2-year-old Calyssa Arielle*

2-year-old Caleb Kai*

*denotes twins.

WDYT? I’m actually impressed with the octuplets’ names: they keep a theme without being TOO matchy. I especially like Josiah and Nariah from the octuplets, and I like Amerah, a cool name in my opinion, from the other kids.

Us onomasts have pretty much heard the top 10 baby names from back to front: Emily, Isabella, Emma, Ava, Madison, Sophia, Olivia, Abigail, Hannah, Elizabeth, Jacob, Michael, Ethan, Joshua, Daniel, Christopher, Anthony, William, Matthew, and Andrew no longer make us blink an eye. But as we anxiously wait for the 2008 top 1000 names, we can look closer into the top 1000 of 2007. Maybe some of us have memorized the names of the top 25 or top 50 of each gender, but have any of us taken a real look at… the bottom 10 of the top 1000 list? Now, you have that chance.

My favorites: Antonia, Susana, and Leticia, though Bree and Olive are ok. I wonder where Diya came from? My guess as a creaytive spelling of Dia, the Spanish word for “day.”

Now for the boys:

990. Bentley

991. Talen

992. Blaise

993. Brenton

994. Eliezer

995. Isaak

996. Tyshawn

997: Dandre

998. Daxton

999. Leroy

1000. Trystan

Again, these are all over the place. I sense a trend here: There’s the trendy-sounding Daxton, Talen, Brenton,Bentley, and Trystan, buttoned-up Isaak and Eliezer, sophisticated Blaise, old-fashioned Leroy, and unconventional Tyshawn and Dandre.

Faves: Eliezer (ell-e-AY-zur), because of the association with Eliezer “Elie” Wiesel, author and concentration-camp survivor, and Blaise (recently a NotD at appellationmountain) are the only ones I really like, and Isaak/Isaac is ok for me. The rest are too current/soon-to-be-dated like Brenton, or made-up-sounding, like Tyshawn. And the misspelling of the medievel Tristan downgrades it quite a bit.

Conclusion: While familiar names like Ophelia, Gwen, Jedediah, and Gregor do not make the cut, names like Diya and Daxton do. WDYT of these bottom-of-the-top-1000 names?

I’ll be up front: I LOVE the name Ezra for a boy. If you like Ezra for a girl’s name, I suggest you stop reading right… about… now.

For about a year and a half now, Ezra has been seriously in contention for breaking my top 5 boy’s names (I know… stop the presses!).

He fits all the criteria for me: he is intelligent sounding, has historical connections, is spunky yet classic, with a bonus of not being very common.

I first encountered him in a book series, where he was an incredibly handsome and quirky teacher. This may have influenced my opinion about him a little.

However, while perusing the babynames.com message boards, I encountered a post in which the user was asking for a 4th sister name for a sibset with girls named Zoe, Eden, and … Ezra.

Needless to say, I flipped.

Ezra is NOT an underused cute little girl’s name that has a z. It is a Biblical BOY’S name. Just because it ends in an “a” does not mean it’s perfect for feminine use. Have you ever met a female Joshua?

Also, the feel of Ezra is so masculine to me. EZ-ruh. Just say it aloud. Now repeat e-LIE-zuh. Close name, but a much more feminine feel. Eliza is the name these parents, in my unimportant opinion, should have chosen for their second daughter (she was the middle kid).

So, WDYT? Is Ezra feminine and I missed the memo? Do you know an Ezra of either gender? How would you complete the sibset of Zoe, Ezra Eliza, Eden, and insertgirlsnamehere ?

The “Little House On the Prairie” books were amoung the first books I read as a grade-schooler, and I’m sure I am not the only one. However, I didn’t appreciate what great namers ran in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s family! Here is a list of Laura’s family members, from her great-grandmother’s family down to her daughter’s.** These people were all real.

Laura Ladocia “Docia” (married August Waldvogel and they had two kids: Lena and August Eugene “Jean”. She then divorced Waldvogel and married Hiram “Hi” Forbes, and they had 7 daughters [names not listed!]

Hiram Lemuel

George Whiting

Ruby Celestia

Laura’s Maternal Great-Great-Grandparents:

Allan Alexander Morse and Margaret Drummond

Laura’s Maternal Great-Grandparents:

Louis Tucker and Martha Gráinne Morse [the Martha of the book series] (her brothers were Alistair, Robbie, and Duncan, and her sister was Grisie, probably short for Grisell, her aunt’s name)
William Quiner and Margaret Doer